I love words. I always have. I dream about writing a book someday. I love telling story, writing it out for others to read and experience. I've always prayed that my words would be encouraging, life-giving, and that they would allow others to step into and truly understand the very things I write about. I love the power of words to do just that - to open us up to world's we've never been to ourselves, to struggles we've never walked through... and to experience it through the way it is shared. Words are powerful. And I've come to know that in a whole new way because it's through very specific words or phrases the Lord most often speaks to me.
Two things the Lord has been speaking to me this year (well, plenty more than that, but two very specific words/phrases). But I don't think the words are only for me. So my prayer is that for those of you who are reading this now, the Lord will speak to you, encourage you, affirm in you, and even challenge you in the words He wants you to take away from this.
RELEASE.
Coming into 2018, this word seemed to be the only one on my mind. And not only in my mind, but a word I felt like the Lord impressed upon my spirit. "Kristy, this year will be a year of release." If you're confused by that, so was I, and I've spent the past 2.5 months of this year processing through it.
2017 was a tough year and also a really good year. It was powerful yet also an incredible struggle. Law changes in Thailand created some real turmoil for us trying to do the work we felt the Lord had called us here to do. Seasons of loneliness came on thick. Questions of "God, why am I here?" began to surface. It's not some picture perfect life we're living over here or some elaborate vacation in the sun. But in everything we were coming up against, the word we felt the Lord had spoken over 2017 was one of "breakthrough". And we were seeing it in ways we weren't expecting. But why was it so hard? Turns out... breaking through stuff is pretty difficult to do sometimes. (Duh Kristy, should've seen that coming!) Wow, just thinking through some of the past year makes me feel a little mentally exhausted.
So heading into 2018, I really began asking the Lord what He wanted to say about it. I'm not big on new year's resolutions, but I am one to pray and ask the Lord for a word He wants to speak over the year ahead. The word I began hearing... "release". Release what? Release the anxiety, the exhaustion, the stress that had built up over the turmoil of 2017? Release something else I'm holding onto that I'm not even sure what it is? Release dreams, expectations, hopes for my future? Release fear? Release what? Honestly, it's a hearty "yes and amen" to each of those things, but I felt like the word release was not only about a posture the Lord wanted me to take up but also about one He wanted to return.
I truly believe with every bit of my heart this year will be a year of release - of seeing the Lord release things to us in unprecedented ways... things we've hoped for, dreamed for, prayed for, waited for. I believe heaven wants to release blessings over us and through us in ways we can't even begin to imagine. Release.
And here we are 2.5 months into the new year and we're already experiencing so much of this! There aren't words enough to describe it! The Lord has been releasing connections, deeper relationships, resources, finances, community, and so much more! I can't even do it justice! It's been unbelievable and yet still unbelievably hard. It seems with every release of blessing we're met by some kind of resistance - strange dreams, restless sleep, physical & mental exhaustion, muddled minds, more changing laws, etc. But release is happening and there is more to come!!!
Alongside this word "release" is a phrase the Lord continues to place on my heart... "prepare the fields". There's a position the Lord is asking us to take up. We have to get ourselves ready to receive the blessing, the release that's coming. Otherwise, where will it go? Where will it land if there's no room for it anywhere or if we're ill-prepared to handle it? The Lord wants to release His blessings, but He's a good God and He's not going to release something we're not prepared to handle. So "prepare the fields"... make ready a space for the blessings you're asking the Lord for. It's an act of trust - of believing the release is coming and of positioning yourself to fully receive it. In the words of a sweet and sassy 2 year old friend of mine... "Come on!"
Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" (Matthew 9:37a).
Lord grant us courage, strength and discipline to be the workers you've called us to be in reaping the harvest you have promised!
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